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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Analysis: Research Products

The following articles, chapters, books, or projects use At the Circulating Library as the basis for their arguments and results.

Allen Riddell and Troy J. Bassett. "The Victorian Novel and the Random Canon: Sampling the Great Unread, 1837–1901." In Progress.
Uses the databaset to construct and analyze a random sample of Victorian fiction.
Allen Riddell and Troy J. Bassett. "What Library Digitization Leaves Out: Predicting the Availability of Digital Surrogates of English Novels." Portal: Libraries and the Academy (2021). Forthcoming.
Assesses the coverage of large-scale digitization by using novels published between 1836 and 1838.
Allen Riddell and Michael Betancourt. "Reassembling the English Novel, 1789–1919." CA: Journal of Cultural Analytics (3 February 2021).
Estimates yearly rates of new novel publication in the British Isles between 1789 and 1919.
Troy J. Bassett. The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Three-Volume Novel. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
Studies the publication history of the multi-volume novel.
Allen Riddell and Troy J. Bassett. "The Class of 1838: or, Who were the First Victorian Novelists?" Mémoires du livre / Studies in Book Culture 11.2 (2020).
Offers a sociological analysis of the 81 authors of fiction in 1838.
Troy J. Bassett. "The Victorian Four-Volume Novel." The Library: The Transactions of the Bibliographical Society 17.1 (2016): 67–74.
Gives the history of this seldom used publishing format.
Troy J. Bassett. "Sister Acts: The Prevalence of Literary Families in the Victorian Period." Studies in Victorian and Modern Literature: A Tribute to John Sutherland. Ed. William Baker. Fairleigh Dickenson UP, 2015. 103–15.
Traces family relationship among 3,000 authors of fiction.
Troy J. Bassett. "Living on the Margin: George Bentley and the Economics of the Three-Volume Novel, 1865–70." Book History 13 (2010): 58–79.
Examines the financial returns of publishing three-volume novels for Bentley, the second largest publisher.
Troy J. Bassett. "The Production of Three-Volume Novels, 1863–1897." Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 102.1 (2008): 61–75.
Uses a very early dataset to count the number of three-volume novels published in the late-Victorian period.